DETAILED ACTION
This office action is a response to the amendment and arguments filed on February 20, 2026.
Claims 59-74 are pending.
Claims 59-74 are rejected.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments, see Page 7-8, filed February 20, 2026, with respect to the rejection of Claims 59, 60, 65, 67, 68 and 73 under 35 U.S.C. §103 as being unpatentable over Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues as follows:
Claims 59, 60, 65, 67, 68, and 73 are rejected as allegedly obvious over Bhamri (US 2024/0073949) in view of MolavianJazi (US 2019/0159136). Each of the remaining claims is rejected over these same references, in further view of one of several additional references. All of these rejections should be withdrawn, because the Office has not established that the relied- upon subject matter in Bhamri qualifies as prior art with respect to the pending claims.
More particularly, the pending claims have an effective filing date of 6 April 2021. Bhamri, on the other hand, was filed on 12 July 2023, well after the Applicant's effective filing date. While Bhamri claims priority to a provisional application having a filing date of 12 January 2021, which is before the Applicant's effective filing date, subject material from Bhamri's disclosure is only available as prior art to the pending claims to the extent that the very same subject matter is disclosed in Bhamri's provisional application.
The Office Action does not include any findings to establish that the relied-upon subject matter in Bhamri is also found in Bhamri's provisional application. A review of Bhamri's provisional application suggests that at least some of the relied-upon subject matter is not there. As an example, the Office Action's analysis of the claims relies upon Bhamri's paragraphs 0134 and 0169-0177 for their disclosures that a "UE indicates a capability for beam correspondence without the UL beam sweeping," but there does not appear to be a corresponding disclosure in Bhamri's provisional application.
There may be other instances where Bhamri's provisional application fails to support the Office Action's citations to Bhamri. For present purposes, however, one instance is enough. Should the Office wish to continue to rely on Bhamri in rejections of the claims, it should fully support those rejections by pointing out where the relied-upon subject matter from Bhamri may be found in Bhamri's provisional application.
The rejections should be withdrawn. Reconsideration and allowance of the claims is respectfully requested.
Examiner respectfully disagrees. In response to applicant's arguments against the references individually, one cannot show nonobviousness by attacking references individually where the rejections are based on combinations of references. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981); In re Merck & Co., 800 F.2d 1091, 231 USPQ 375 (Fed. Cir. 1986).
Prior art reference Bhamri was primarily cited for with respect to performing a clear channel assessment (CCA) on the shared radio spectrum using an antenna array, wherein the CCA comprises a beamformed reception on the shared radio spectrum at the UE prior to the beamformed transmission. This is detailed in the provisional with respect to Figure 2-6 of the provisional document with details of a listen before talk procedure over a shared radio spectrum. Examiner notes prior art reference MolavianJazi clearly discloses details on UE capability, beam correspondence and non-correspondence where a UE may or may not support beam correspondence.
Prior art reference Bhamri further discloses the result of the CCA selectively performing the beam forming transmission where if the LBT is successful for at least some beams it can start an uplink transmission (See at least Paragraph [0033-0084] Which details the LBT procedure and transmission.
Prior art reference Bhamri further discloses an association (correspondence) between transmit beams and sensing beams. In particular Paragraph [0033,0095] of the provisional state mapping association between beams and a situation where no association is configured between the indicated transmit beam and any sensing beam where it is up to implementation what LBT mechanism is applied including omni-directional LBT, directional LBT, or combination thereof or no-LBT. Prior art reference Bhamri further indicates details on situations with respect to mapping options and facilitating performing a LBT according to signaling/configuration where a UE is capable of beam correspondence (see Paragraph [0065-0074] of the provisional).
That is, prior art reference Bhamri discloses performing CCA on the shared radio spectrum and depending on the result performing a beam formed transmission but may not explicitly disclose an antenna array or UE indicating a capability of beam correspondence, a reception beamwidth of the beamformed reception being equal to a transmission beamwidth of the beamformed transmission and, when the UE is a UE without beam correspondence capability, the reception beamwidth of the beamformed reception covering at least the transmission beamwidth of the beamformed transmission.
However, MolavianJazi, in the same field of endeavor, more specifically teaches an antenna array or the UE is a UE without beam correspondence capability, the reception beamwidth of the beamformed reception covering at least the transmission beamwidth of the beamformed transmission (Paragraph [0068] a physical antenna may be mapped directly to a single antenna port. In such embodiments, an antenna port corresponds to an actual physical antenna. In certain embodiments, a set of physical antennas, a subset of physical antennas, an antenna set, an antenna array, or an antenna sub-array may be mapped to one or more antenna ports after applying complex weighting, a cyclic delay, or both to a signal on each physical antenna. Paragraph [0065] In some embodiments, a TX beam and RX beam correspondence configured at a TRP and a UE may be as follows: a TX beam and RX beam correspondence at a TRP may be maintained if at least one of the following is satisfied: 1) the TRP is able to determine a TRP RX beam for uplink reception based on a UE's downlink measurement on the TRP's one or more TX beams; and 2) the TRP is able to determine a TRP TX beam for downlink transmission based on the TRP's uplink measurement on the TRP's one or more RX beams; and a TX beam and RX beam correspondence at a UE may be maintained if at least one of the following is satisfied; Paragraph [0135] a UE capability report includes an UL and/or DL non-correspondence feature (e.g., the UE reports that it may not support beam correspondence due to one or some of the following reasons: the UE sometimes and/or always uses different panels for TX than RX; the UE has poor calibration such as because there is a large phase offset between the RX beams and the TX beams; the UE has restrictions on the usage of the TX beams, for example, all beams are possible for RX, but the UE can use only certain beams for TX due to EIRP-like limitations; the TX and RX beams of the UE have different beam widths such as a narrower beam for RX, but wider beams for TX; the TX and RX phasing network of that UE have different granularities such as that RX uses finer phase shifts, but TX uses coarser phase shifts; and/or the UE beamforming capabilities are different for TX and RX such as only a limited number of beams (or beam patterns) may be used for TX, but all of those beams (and beam patterns) as well as their linear combinations may be used for RX), then the UE may report to the gNB an average UL and/or DL mismatch offset for each gNB beam).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Bhamri with the teachings of MolavianJazi. MolavianJazi provides a solution which enables facilitating power boosting for the uplink transmission and assigning a power level larger than originally configured power to increase reliability of the uplink transmission by increasing transmission power and to minimize and/or compensate for any penalizing impact on performance of the uplink transmission caused by puncturing the data of the uplink transmission for insertion of demodulation reference signal (MolavianJazi Abstract; Paragraph [0005-0012, 0065 and 0135]).
Thus the reference do teach “performing a clear channel assessment (CCA) on the shared radio spectrum using an antenna array of the UE, wherein the CCA comprises a beamformed reception on the shared radio spectrum at the UE prior to the beamformed transmission; and depending on a result of the CCA, selectively performing the beamformed transmission on the shared radio spectrum using the antenna array from the UE to a receiving station, wherein said selectively performing the beamforming comprises, when the UE indicates a capability of beam correspondence, a reception beamwidth of the beamformed reception being equal to a transmission beamwidth of the beamformed transmission, and when the UE is a UE without beam correspondence capability, the reception beamwidth of the beamformed reception covering at least the transmission beamwidth of the beamformed transmission.”
The rejection is maintained.
All remaining arguments presented by Applicant not specifically addressed herein and directed to various dependent claims are found unpersuasive for the same reasons as stated herein, supra, with regard to independent claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 59, 60, 65, 67, 68 and 73 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bhamri et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2024/0073949, hereinafter Bhamri, in view of MolavianJazi et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2019/0159136, hereinafter MolavianJazi.
Regarding Claim 59, Bhamri discloses a method of performing a beamformed transmission on shared radio spectrum at a user equipment (UE) (Abstract; Figure 1,2 and 7), the method comprising:
performing a clear channel assessment (CCA) on the shared radio spectrum using an antenna array of the UE, wherein the CCA comprises a beamformed reception on the shared radio spectrum at the UE prior to the beamformed transmission (Figure 4; Paragraph [0089-0110] Clear Channel Assessment/Listen Before Talk procedure over shared radio spectrum before transmission);
and depending on a result of the CCA, selectively performing the beamformed transmission on the shared radio spectrum using the antenna array from the UE to a receiving station (Paragraph [0073 and 0089] if the outcome of LBT/CCA is successful for at least one of the beams for which LBT is performed, then the UE can start uplink transmission),
wherein said selectively performing the beamforming comprises, when the UE indicates a capability of beam correspondence, a reception beamwidth of the beamformed reception being equal to a transmission beamwidth of the beamformed transmission, and when the UE is a UE without beam correspondence capability, the reception beamwidth of the beamformed reception covering at least the transmission beamwidth of the beamformed transmission (Paragraph [0134 and 0169-0177] determining a spatial domain filter for the sensing beam based on a QCL assumption type-D of the indicated transmit beam when the UE indicates a capability for beam correspondence without the UL beam sweeping, and when the selected sensing beam has a same beamwidth and a same directivity as the transmission beam. In other embodiments, a spatial domain filter for the sensing beam covers all transmit beams when the UE does not indicate the capability for beam correspondence without the UL beam sweeping; the mapping configuration associates multiple transmit beams to a single (wide) sensing beam (i.e., a many-to-one mapping of transmit beams to sensing beams). In certain embodiments, the mapping configuration associates each transmit beam to one sensing beam (i.e., a one-to-one mapping of transmit beams to sensing beams)).
Bhamri readily discloses performing CCA on the shared radio spectrum and depending on the result performing a beam formed transmission but may not explicitly disclose an antenna array or UE indicating a capability of beam correspondence, a reception beamwidth of the beamformed reception being equal to a transmission beamwidth of the beamformed transmission and, when the UE is a UE without beam correspondence capability, the reception beamwidth of the beamformed reception covering at least the transmission beamwidth of the beamformed transmission.
However, MolavianJazi, in the same field of endeavor, more specifically teaches an antenna array or the UE is a UE without beam correspondence capability, the reception beamwidth of the beamformed reception covering at least the transmission beamwidth of the beamformed transmission (Paragraph [0068] a physical antenna may be mapped directly to a single antenna port. In such embodiments, an antenna port corresponds to an actual physical antenna. In certain embodiments, a set of physical antennas, a subset of physical antennas, an antenna set, an antenna array, or an antenna sub-array may be mapped to one or more antenna ports after applying complex weighting, a cyclic delay, or both to a signal on each physical antenna. Paragraph [0065] In some embodiments, a TX beam and RX beam correspondence configured at a TRP and a UE may be as follows: a TX beam and RX beam correspondence at a TRP may be maintained if at least one of the following is satisfied: 1) the TRP is able to determine a TRP RX beam for uplink reception based on a UE's downlink measurement on the TRP's one or more TX beams; and 2) the TRP is able to determine a TRP TX beam for downlink transmission based on the TRP's uplink measurement on the TRP's one or more RX beams; and a TX beam and RX beam correspondence at a UE may be maintained if at least one of the following is satisfied; Paragraph [0135] a UE capability report includes an UL and/or DL non-correspondence feature (e.g., the UE reports that it may not support beam correspondence due to one or some of the following reasons: the UE sometimes and/or always uses different panels for TX than RX; the UE has poor calibration such as because there is a large phase offset between the RX beams and the TX beams; the UE has restrictions on the usage of the TX beams, for example, all beams are possible for RX, but the UE can use only certain beams for TX due to EIRP-like limitations; the TX and RX beams of the UE have different beam widths such as a narrower beam for RX, but wider beams for TX; the TX and RX phasing network of that UE have different granularities such as that RX uses finer phase shifts, but TX uses coarser phase shifts; and/or the UE beamforming capabilities are different for TX and RX such as only a limited number of beams (or beam patterns) may be used for TX, but all of those beams (and beam patterns) as well as their linear combinations may be used for RX), then the UE may report to the gNB an average UL and/or DL mismatch offset for each gNB beam).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Bhamri with the teachings of MolavianJazi. MolavianJazi provides a solution which enables facilitating power boosting for the uplink transmission and assigning a power level larger than originally configured power to increase reliability of the uplink transmission by increasing transmission power and to minimize and/or compensate for any penalizing impact on performance of the uplink transmission caused by puncturing the data of the uplink transmission for insertion of demodulation reference signal (MolavianJazi Abstract; Paragraph [0005-0012, 0065 and 0135]).
Regarding Claim 60, Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi disclose the method of Claim 59. Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi further disclose further comprising at least one of: determining beamforming weights, for a beamformed reception of a clear channel assessment (CCA) and the beamformed transmission, based on a source channel or a source signal; indicating the capability of beam correspondence (Bhamri Paragraph [0134 and 0169] when the UE indicates a capability for beam correspondence without the UL beam sweeping, and when the selected sensing beam has a same beamwidth and a same directivity as the transmission beam; MolavianJazi Paragraph [0135]).
Regarding Claim 65, Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi disclose the method of Claim 59. Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi further disclose wherein the CCA comprises multiple beamformed receptions on the shared radio spectrum in different directions at the UE (Bhamri Paragraph [0038-0044 and 0082-0099] Directional CCA/LBT procedure using different beam formed reception on the shared radio spectrum in different directions).
Regarding Claim 67, Bhamri discloses a user equipment (UE), for performing a beamformed transmission on shared radio spectrum at the UE, the UE comprising radio circuitry and processing circuitry (Abstract; Figure 1,2 and 7) configured to:
perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) on the shared radio spectrum using an antenna array of the UE, wherein the CCA comprises a beamformed reception on the shared radio spectrum at the UE prior to the beamformed transmission (Figure 4; Paragraph [0089-0110] Clear Channel Assessment/Listen Before Talk procedure over shared radio spectrum before transmission);
and depending on a result of the CCA, selectively perform the beamformed transmission on the shared radio spectrum using the antenna array from the UE to a receiving station (Paragraph [0073 and 0089] if the outcome of LBT/CCA is successful for at least one of the beams for which LBT is performed, then the UE can start uplink transmission),
wherein selectively performing the beamformed transmission comprises, when the UE indicates a capability of beam correspondence, a reception beamwidth of the beamformed reception being equal to a transmission beamwidth of the beamformed transmission and, when the UE is a UE without beam correspondence capability, the reception beamwidth of the beamformed reception covering at least the transmission beamwidth of the beamformed transmission (Paragraph [0134 and 0169-0177] determining a spatial domain filter for the sensing beam based on a QCL assumption type-D of the indicated transmit beam when the UE indicates a capability for beam correspondence without the UL beam sweeping, and when the selected sensing beam has a same beamwidth and a same directivity as the transmission beam. In other embodiments, a spatial domain filter for the sensing beam covers all transmit beams when the UE does not indicate the capability for beam correspondence without the UL beam sweeping; the mapping configuration associates multiple transmit beams to a single (wide) sensing beam (i.e., a many-to-one mapping of transmit beams to sensing beams). In certain embodiments, the mapping configuration associates each transmit beam to one sensing beam (i.e., a one-to-one mapping of transmit beams to sensing beams)).
Bhamri readily discloses performing CCA on the shared radio spectrum and depending on the result performing a beam formed transmission but may not explicitly disclose an antenna array or UE indicating a capability of beam correspondence, a reception beamwidth of the beamformed reception being equal to a transmission beamwidth of the beamformed transmission and, when the UE is a UE without beam correspondence capability, the reception beamwidth of the beamformed reception covering at least the transmission beamwidth of the beamformed transmission.
However, MolavianJazi, in the same field of endeavor, more specifically teaches an antenna array or the UE is a UE without beam correspondence capability, the reception beamwidth of the beamformed reception covering at least the transmission beamwidth of the beamformed transmission (Paragraph [0068] a physical antenna may be mapped directly to a single antenna port. In such embodiments, an antenna port corresponds to an actual physical antenna. In certain embodiments, a set of physical antennas, a subset of physical antennas, an antenna set, an antenna array, or an antenna sub-array may be mapped to one or more antenna ports after applying complex weighting, a cyclic delay, or both to a signal on each physical antenna. Paragraph [0065] In some embodiments, a TX beam and RX beam correspondence configured at a TRP and a UE may be as follows: a TX beam and RX beam correspondence at a TRP may be maintained if at least one of the following is satisfied: 1) the TRP is able to determine a TRP RX beam for uplink reception based on a UE's downlink measurement on the TRP's one or more TX beams; and 2) the TRP is able to determine a TRP TX beam for downlink transmission based on the TRP's uplink measurement on the TRP's one or more RX beams; and a TX beam and RX beam correspondence at a UE may be maintained if at least one of the following is satisfied; Paragraph [0135] a UE capability report includes an UL and/or DL non-correspondence feature (e.g., the UE reports that it may not support beam correspondence due to one or some of the following reasons: the UE sometimes and/or always uses different panels for TX than RX; the UE has poor calibration such as because there is a large phase offset between the RX beams and the TX beams; the UE has restrictions on the usage of the TX beams, for example, all beams are possible for RX, but the UE can use only certain beams for TX due to EIRP-like limitations; the TX and RX beams of the UE have different beam widths such as a narrower beam for RX, but wider beams for TX; the TX and RX phasing network of that UE have different granularities such as that RX uses finer phase shifts, but TX uses coarser phase shifts; and/or the UE beamforming capabilities are different for TX and RX such as only a limited number of beams (or beam patterns) may be used for TX, but all of those beams (and beam patterns) as well as their linear combinations may be used for RX), then the UE may report to the gNB an average UL and/or DL mismatch offset for each gNB beam).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Bhamri with the teachings of MolavianJazi. MolavianJazi provides a solution which enables facilitating power boosting for the uplink transmission and assigning a power level larger than originally configured power to increase reliability of the uplink transmission by increasing transmission power and to minimize and/or compensate for any penalizing impact on performance of the uplink transmission caused by puncturing the data of the uplink transmission for insertion of demodulation reference signal (MolavianJazi Abstract; Paragraph [0005-0012, 0065 and 0135]).
Regarding Claim 68, Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi disclose the UE of Claim 67. Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi further discloses wherein the radio circuitry and processing circuitry are configured to: determine beamforming weights, for a beamformed reception of a clear channel assessment (CCA) and the beamformed transmission, based on a source channel or a source signal; and/or indicate the capability of beam correspondence (Bhamri Paragraph [0134 and 0169] when the UE indicates a capability for beam correspondence without the UL beam sweeping, and when the selected sensing beam has a same beamwidth and a same directivity as the transmission beam; MolavianJazi Paragraph [0135]).
Regarding Claim 73, Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi disclose the UE of Claim 67. Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi further disclose wherein the CCA comprises multiple beamformed receptions on the shared radio spectrum in different directions at the UE (Bhamri Paragraph [0038-0044 and 0082-0099] Directional CCA/LBT procedure using different beam formed reception on the shared radio spectrum in different directions).
Claims 61 and 69 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi as applied to claim 60 above, and further in view of Osawa et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2020/0059898, hereinafter Osawa.
Regarding Claim 61, Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi disclose the method of Claim 60. Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi disclose beam correspondence information but may not explicitly disclose wherein the beam correspondence is a capability of the UE that the UE indicates to a network node via capability reporting and/or wherein the UE indicates the capability of the beam correspondence by transmitting a control signaling to a network node.
However, Osawa more specifically teaches wherein the beam correspondence is a capability of the UE that the UE indicates to a network node via capability reporting and/or wherein the UE indicates the capability of the beam correspondence by transmitting a control signaling to a network node (Paragraph [0051 and 0096] The information related to beam correspondence may be reported to the gNB and/or the UE by using higher layer signaling (for example, RRC signaling) and/or physical layer signaling (for example, DCI, UCI, etc.), or by combining these. If the UE has capabilities related to beam correspondence, the gNB and/or the UE may determine that the UE is capable of UE-centric operation. The UE may report UE capability information, which shows whether or not the UE has beam correspondence-related capabilities, to the gNB).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi with the teachings of Osawa. Osawa provides a solution where when UE is allowed to select beams, it is possible to reduce the decline in communication throughput and so forth (Osawa Abstract; Paragraph [0001-0010]).
Regarding Claim 69, Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi disclose the UE of Claim 67. Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi disclose beam correspondence information but may not explicitly disclose wherein the beam correspondence is a capability of the UE that the UE indicates to a network node via capability reporting and/or wherein the radio circuitry and processing circuitry are configured to indicate the capability of the beam correspondence by transmitting a control signaling to a network node.
However, Osawa more specifically teaches wherein the beam correspondence is a capability of the UE that the UE indicates to a network node via capability reporting and/or wherein the radio circuitry and processing circuitry are configured to indicate the capability of the beam correspondence by transmitting a control signaling to a network node (Paragraph [0051 and 0096] The information related to beam correspondence may be reported to the gNB and/or the UE by using higher layer signaling (for example, RRC signaling) and/or physical layer signaling (for example, DCI, UCI, etc.), or by combining these. If the UE has capabilities related to beam correspondence, the gNB and/or the UE may determine that the UE is capable of UE-centric operation. The UE may report UE capability information, which shows whether or not the UE has beam correspondence-related capabilities, to the gNB).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi with the teachings of Osawa. Osawa provides a solution where when UE is allowed to select beams, it is possible to reduce the decline in communication throughput and so forth (Osawa Abstract; Paragraph [0001-0010]).
Claim 62, 66, 70 and 74 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi as applied to claim 60 and 65 above, and further in view of Tomeba et al. WIPO Publication WO 2019/156082, machine translated, hereinafter Tomeba.
Regarding Claim 62, Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi disclose the method of Claim 60. Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi briefly disclose wherein a beamformed reception filter is used for the beamformed reception of the CCA and a beamformed transmission filter is used for the beamformed transmission, and wherein the beamformed transmission filter corresponds to the beamformed reception filter (Bhamri Paragraph [0134 -0135 and 0169-0171]).
Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi fail to explicitly disclose wherein the beamforming weights for the beamformed transmission are also used for the beamformed reception of the CCA.
However, Tomeba more specifically teaches wherein the beamforming weights for the beamformed transmission are also used for the beamformed reception of the CCA (Page 21 duality (relationship or reciprocity) related to downlink and uplink propagation (channel) characteristics. As information regarding propagation characteristics, the base station apparatus can notify the terminal apparatus of information indicating beam correspondence (Beam Correspondence, spatial relation (Spatial relation), spatial relation information (Spatial relation information), reception parameters). Here, beam correspondence is reception beam forming (spatial domain reception filter, reception weight, reception parameter, reception spatial parameter) used when a terminal apparatus receives a downlink signal, and transmission used when transmitting an uplink signal. Information indicating the relationship between beamforming (spatial domain transmission filter, transmission weight, transmission parameter, transmission spatial parameter) is included).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi with the teachings of Tomeba. Tomeba provides a solution for increasing the energy detection threshold improves the probability of successful carrier sensing, but the area of interference due to beamforming is reduced, so the possibility that the interference power will increase significantly is low (Tomeba Abstract; Page 1-2 and 23).
Regarding Claim 66, Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi disclose the method of Claim 65. Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi further disclose where the multiple beamformed receptions use at least one of: multiple beamformed reception filters directed in the different directions (Bhamri Paragraph [0038-0044 and 0134]).
Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi may not explicitly disclose multiple antenna panels directed in the different directions.
However, Tomeba more specifically teaches multiple antenna panels directed in the different directions (Page 2 and 21 a plurality of antennas (antenna panels) set with independent beam forming are provided and path loss is compensated by appropriately switching the antennas; Page 25 The communication apparatus according to the present embodiment includes at least two beams (first beam direction and second beam direction, first spatial reception filter and second spatial reception filter, first SSB and second SSB, The first LBT can be implemented assuming a first antenna port, a second antenna port, a first reference signal resource index, and a second reference signal resource index). For example, when the communication device includes two antenna panels, the communication device can simultaneously perform the first LBT in each of the two antenna panels. In the following description, unless otherwise specified, the operation of the communication apparatus using two beams (two antenna panels) is applicable even when the communication apparatus uses three or more beams).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi with the teachings of Tomeba. Tomeba provides a solution for increasing the energy detection threshold improves the probability of successful carrier sensing, but the area of interference due to beamforming is reduced, so the possibility that the interference power will increase significantly is low (Tomeba Abstract; Page 1-2 and 23).
Regarding Claim 70, Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi disclose the UE of Claim 68. Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi briefly disclose wherein the radio circuitry and processing circuitry are configured so that a beamformed reception filter is used for the beamformed reception of the CCA and a beamformed transmission filter is used for the beamformed transmission, and wherein the beamformed transmission filter corresponds to the beamformed reception filter (Bhamri Paragraph [0134 -0135 and 0169-0171]).
Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi fail to explicitly disclose wherein the radio circuitry and processing circuitry are configured to use the beamforming weights for the beamformed transmission also for the beamformed reception of the CCA.
However, Tomeba more specifically teaches wherein the radio circuitry and processing circuitry are configured to use the beamforming weights for the beamformed transmission also for the beamformed reception of the CCA (Page 21 duality (relationship or reciprocity) related to downlink and uplink propagation (channel) characteristics. As information regarding propagation characteristics, the base station apparatus can notify the terminal apparatus of information indicating beam correspondence (Beam Correspondence, spatial relation (Spatial relation), spatial relation information (Spatial relation information), reception parameters). Here, beam correspondence is reception beam forming (spatial domain reception filter, reception weight, reception parameter, reception spatial parameter) used when a terminal apparatus receives a downlink signal, and transmission used when transmitting an uplink signal. Information indicating the relationship between beamforming (spatial domain transmission filter, transmission weight, transmission parameter, transmission spatial parameter) is included).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi with the teachings of Tomeba. Tomeba provides a solution for increasing the energy detection threshold improves the probability of successful carrier sensing, but the area of interference due to beamforming is reduced, so the possibility that the interference power will increase significantly is low (Tomeba Abstract; Page 1-2 and 23).
Regarding Claim 74, Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi disclose the UE of Claim 63. Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi further disclose where the multiple beamformed receptions use at least one of: multiple beamformed reception filters directed in the different directions (Bhamri Paragraph [0038-0044 and 0134]).
Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi may not explicitly disclose multiple antenna panels directed in the different directions.
However, Tomeba more specifically multiple antenna panels directed in the different directions (Page 2 and 21 a plurality of antennas (antenna panels) set with independent beam forming are provided and path loss is compensated by appropriately switching the antennas; Page 25 The communication apparatus according to the present embodiment includes at least two beams (first beam direction and second beam direction, first spatial reception filter and second spatial reception filter, first SSB and second SSB, The first LBT can be implemented assuming a first antenna port, a second antenna port, a first reference signal resource index, and a second reference signal resource index). For example, when the communication device includes two antenna panels, the communication device can simultaneously perform the first LBT in each of the two antenna panels. In the following description, unless otherwise specified, the operation of the communication apparatus using two beams (two antenna panels) is applicable even when the communication apparatus uses three or more beams).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi with the teachings of Tomeba. Tomeba provides a solution for increasing the energy detection threshold improves the probability of successful carrier sensing, but the area of interference due to beamforming is reduced, so the possibility that the interference power will increase significantly is low (Tomeba Abstract; Page 1-2 and 23).
Claims 63, 64, 71 and 72 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi as applied to claim 60 and 68 above, and further in view of Tang U.S. Patent Application Publication 2020/0067739, hereinafter Tang.
Regarding Claim 63, Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi disclose the method of Claim 60. Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi fail to disclose wherein the same beamforming weights for transmitting an indicated sounding reference signal (SRS) resource or the indicated SRS resource is used for the CCA and the subsequent transmission.
However, Tang teaches wherein the same beamforming weights for transmitting an indicated SRS resource or the indicated sounding reference signal (SRS) resource is used for the CCA and the subsequent transmission (Paragraph [0058-0068, 0087-0089 and 0115] Determining the beamforming weight for SRS transmission on the target SRS resource as the beamforming weight for transmission of the uplink signal is favorable for improving the accuracy of the beamforming weight determined by the terminal to transmit the uplink signal and, meanwhile, obtaining uplink CSI on the basis of the selected beamforming weight).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi with the teachings of Tang. Tang provides a solution to improve accuracy of the transmission parameter determined by the terminal to transmit the uplink signal is facilitated and enable determining the transmission parameters for transmitting the uplink signal to be transmitted according to the target SRS resource for avoiding situation in which SRS resource transmits an SRS to evaluate a channel state, so that the SRS resource can be appropriately used (Tang Abstract; Paragraph [0002-0025]).
Regarding Claim 64, Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi disclose the method of Claim 60. Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi fail to disclose wherein the transmission is transmitted using the same beamforming weights as an associated sounding reference signal (SRS) resource.
However, Tang teaches wherein the transmission is transmitted using the same beamforming weights as an associated sounding reference signal (SRS) resource (Paragraph [0058-0068, 0087-0089 and 0115] Determining the beamforming weight for SRS transmission on the target SRS resource as the beamforming weight for transmission of the uplink signal is favorable for improving the accuracy of the beamforming weight determined by the terminal to transmit the uplink signal and, meanwhile, obtaining uplink CSI on the basis of the selected beamforming weight).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi with the teachings of Tang. Tang provides a solution to improve accuracy of the transmission parameter determined by the terminal to transmit the uplink signal is facilitated and enable determining the transmission parameters for transmitting the uplink signal to be transmitted according to the target SRS resource for avoiding situation in which SRS resource transmits an SRS to evaluate a channel state, so that the SRS resource can be appropriately used (Tang Abstract; Paragraph [0002-0025]).
Regarding Claim 71, Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi disclose the UE of Claim 68. Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi fail to disclose wherein the radio circuitry and processing circuitry are configured to use the same beamforming weights for transmitting an indicated sounding reference signal (SRS) resource or to use the indicated SRS resource for the CCA and the subsequent transmission.
However, Tang teaches wherein the radio circuitry and processing circuitry are configured to use the same beamforming weights for transmitting an indicated SRS resource or to use the indicated sounding reference signal (SRS) resource for the CCA and the subsequent transmission (Paragraph [0058-0068, 0087-0089 and 0115] Determining the beamforming weight for SRS transmission on the target SRS resource as the beamforming weight for transmission of the uplink signal is favorable for improving the accuracy of the beamforming weight determined by the terminal to transmit the uplink signal and, meanwhile, obtaining uplink CSI on the basis of the selected beamforming weight).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi with the teachings of Tang. Tang provides a solution to improve accuracy of the transmission parameter determined by the terminal to transmit the uplink signal is facilitated and enable determining the transmission parameters for transmitting the uplink signal to be transmitted according to the target SRS resource for avoiding situation in which SRS resource transmits an SRS to evaluate a channel state, so that the SRS resource can be appropriately used (Tang Abstract; Paragraph [0002-0025]).
Regarding Claim 72, Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi disclose the UE of Claim 68. Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi fail to disclose wherein the radio circuitry and processing circuitry are configured to transmit the transmission using the same beamforming weights as an associated sounding reference signal (SRS) resource.
However, Tang teaches wherein the radio circuitry and processing circuitry are configured to transmit the transmission using the same beamforming weights as an associated sounding reference signal (SRS) resource (Paragraph [0058-0068, 0087-0089 and 0115] Determining the beamforming weight for SRS transmission on the target SRS resource as the beamforming weight for transmission of the uplink signal is favorable for improving the accuracy of the beamforming weight determined by the terminal to transmit the uplink signal and, meanwhile, obtaining uplink CSI on the basis of the selected beamforming weight).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Bhamri in view of MolavianJazi with the teachings of Tang. Tang provides a solution to improve accuracy of the transmission parameter determined by the terminal to transmit the uplink signal is facilitated and enable determining the transmission parameters for transmitting the uplink signal to be transmitted according to the target SRS resource for avoiding situation in which SRS resource transmits an SRS to evaluate a channel state, so that the SRS resource can be appropriately used (Tang Abstract; Paragraph [0002-0025]).
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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IVAN O. LATORRE
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2409
/IVAN O LATORRE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2409
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